Is studying all the school subjects as an adult a waste of time?

[Something Funny]

I've watched Leo's video on high vs low perspectives and his point of general lack of education really stuck with me.

I've passed school with okay grades, but I truly don't feel like I took away that much from it. I've just studied to pass all the tests and exams, never bothering to study just to develop a good understanding of each subject, even on a basic school level.

I've been thinking about going back and studying all of it with Khan Academy and maybe some other resources that I will find. 

But would I be just wasting my time doing that at this point in life?

[Shane Hanlon]

It is really important to a functioning democracy. And is fun when you start to connect different fields together and begin to understand how physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, health, math, and everything is just different facets of the same thing!

Also an education of how the world works can lead to work opportunities that wouldn't be open to you otherwise.

[puporing]

Firstly, I acknowledge there are limited data points. But I don't feel that lots of higher education is required to awaken the mind or to reach God.

It could be a stepping stone and what you might refer to as a correlation, rather than causation. So I'm not saying they can't be closely linked in some way (such as having traits of curiosity, self motivation, taking responsibility for oneself), I also don't see why they have to be. It could foster more questioning or it could also dampen it.  How can we know? Anecdotes are not good enough I suppose.. but we do know most university courses are not about "questioning things", but rather to regurgitate or adopt the professor's views.

Is it true you might encounter more conscious beings/teachers in a university? Perhaps, or perhaps not.. at least in my case some of the most conscious teachers I had (and as well being more influential in my growth) were in junior high and high school.

The issue may also be, what would be in replacement if university education isn't followed, which would make the burden or carving out a plan on the individual as well as their family. 

I guess I am just saying, university is mostly a "survival strategy" (for work), rather than being some kind of essential thing for becoming a more conscious being, at this time.

Edited Thursday at 04:44 AM by puporing

[Basman]

In my experience, a lot of basic education is forgotten in practice due to lack of direct relevance to daily life. Therefor, study what you think is interesting and see where it takes you. Then its not a waste of time even if its useless.

[LastThursday]

In my experience nothing is ever wasted. There are always side benefits to learning anything in more depth, even if the subject itself doesn't seem directly useful at the time.

The biggest benefit is improving your ability to learn new stuff. The more you do it the easier it gets. Even in the workplace you'll have to learn new stuff all the time nowadays, this is an advantage if you can be ahead of your peers. If you want to work for yourself, then you'll definitely have to learn new stuff constantly. If you can do this efficiently, the pay off is obvious.

Another is that different subjects cross over into each other as @Shane Hanlon says. Anything new you learn also crosses over into other areas of your life, even if you haven't studied those other areas.  Even a basic grasp of things like maths can help with understanding your finances and money better, especially so you don't get hoodwinked by others. 

The last point is quite important. If you want to take control of your life, you'll need a good BS filter, and you can only get that by educating yourself well in lots of different areas.

Edited Thursday at 04:01 PM by LastThursday

[MarkKol]

A large waste of time

there are millions of things to educate yourself about outside of the standard school curriculum

Khan academy is a joke, private tutoring will always beat it, if you’re serious about any specific subject

Everyone eventually forgets all that stuff anyway since it has no real area of application in real life

[UnbornTao]

Just the fact of exposing yourself to a variety of subjects and ways of thinking about the world is worthwhile.

It can improve how you learn things, even though much of the content may be forgotten in the end. I'd rather pick any set of subjects that pique my curiosity, instead of strictly following a school's curriculum.

For example, think of Da Vinci, a multi-genius. 

Edited yesterday at 12:33 AM by UnbornTao

[LastThursday]

14 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

I'd rather pick any set of subjects that pique my curiosity, instead of strictly following a school's curriculum.

Same. But sometimes being "forced" to look at subjects you wouldn't have done otherwise can open up new avenues of interest. And, even if you're not that interested it may still have utility in future.

[UnbornTao]

54 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

Same. But sometimes being "forced" to look at subjects you wouldn't have done otherwise can open up new avenues of interest. And, even if you're not that interested it may still have utility in future.

That's true.

Even if it doesn't have much utility in your life in the end, learning a subject, or any minor thing really, can be worthwhile.